Product Description

A character study of a Native American elder, against the unflinching backdrop of contemporary reservation life and the majestic spaces of the western Dakotas. The author draws us deep into the world of this elder, identified only as Dan, as we journey under the vast Dakota skies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51049 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From the Author
"Jack Kerouac meets Black Elk Speaks"
This is not an ordinary book. I will say, simply, that no book will get a non-Indian reader closer to the heart of the Native American experience. I was lucky to get this book, and I feel that it is a gift that I am fortunate to pass along. To my native friends: Trust me. See if my words speak the truth. To my non-Indian friends: Take this journey and see if your eyes and hearts are not opened in a way that is beyond your imagining. This is not some Lynn Andrews foolishness, or some silly fantasy Australian walkabout. This is a real truth -- at once harsh, beautiful, profound, and necessary -- about the lives and spirits of those to whom this land was originally given. You will not look at America in the same way ever again. That is my promise.

Customer Reviews

Like jumping into an glacier fed mountain stream...
This book is not only some of the most absolutely delicious writing I have ever found, but the content was truly ephiphany. Having lived for many years in a community that was filled with Native People, I always had the eerie feeling that I was somehow disingenuous when I was with them, (but couldn't quite figure out why). After reading this, I now understand. I cried all over the book, and belly laughed out loud. If white Americans are ever to hope for forgiveness for the gaping wounds and scars left by what the European people did to the Native People on this continent, we are first going to have to fully understand what happened, and then own the stinging, horrible truth of our ancestors, and our continuing racism. It comes to us, bitterly and sweetly, from the mouth of a Lakota elder, his friends and family, through the courageous pen and heart of Kent Nerburn. The last time I read a book that had as much impact on me as this one, it was Stienbeck's "Grapes of Wrath".

A book that should be in all school libraries
Join Fatback the dog, Kent Neburn the author and Dan a Lakota elder as they take a ride through the past, present and perhaps even the future. Meet people like Grover who makes a mean boloney sandwich but finds the white man's world wanting.

A hard hitting book that spares no punches, and takes no prisoners, don't read this book if you are looking for spiritual enlightenment and the way of the Native American.

Because there is no englightenment to be found and the "way" of the so called Native American has all but been wiped out by the presence of the greedy, self serving white man who is now looking for redemption but is unable to find it no matter how hard he/she looks.

"It's not so much about talking" Dan tells Kent one day but rather it is about listening to the world to the voices which are not necessarily human voices, something that white people aren't very good at, past, present or future.

And the land, who owns the land, is it the white man, is it the people who were there before them, or is it "just there" for everyone to use and respect.

I have to admit this book both enchanted and shocked me, enchanted me because it was so fresh and original, shocked me because it told of words that most people are afraid to say but know are true even whilst indignantly denying them.

I can see some people disliking this book, mainly because there is no forgiveness to be found in any of its many pages and this brutal honesty is what makes this book have teeth that bite.

I mean how can anyone ask to be forgiven for ripping up the land, taking children away from their parents, forcing Christianity down people's throats, creating reservations and making a mockery of the past as it REALLY was?

A worthy read for those with strong stomachs and an acceptance that the evil that men do, does not necessarily just have a foothold in the past.

Reading Material for our Post-9/11 World
Dan is an old Lakota Indian living in poverty and enjoying simple pleasures with his mutt Fatback and buddy Grover. Kent Nerburn, the author of this beautiful book, turns up on Dan's doorstep one day, and so begins his spiritual journey. Though Dan seems harsh towards the white middle-class academic to begin with, you gradually take on some of his anger. The anger is not directed at Nerburn, however, but at White society, which has come to dominate the world, leaving it bereft of spirituality and compassion. Too often a book is revered as being "life-changing", but this is a must if you feel you have lost your direction somewhere along the way.